By Cassandra Sweet Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Southern Co. (SO) Chief Executive Thomas Fanning has been appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the company said Monday. Fanning will serve the remainder of a term that began Jan. 1, 2010, and runs through Dec. 31 of this year. Fanning is a Class C director, appointed by the Fed's board of governors in Washington to represent commerce, industry, agriculture, labor or consumers. Southern Co. received federal approval earlier this month to build the first new U.S. nuclear power plant in decades. The company plans to build two new reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia near the South Carolina border and is waiting for the Department of Energy to close on an $8.3 billion loan guarantee after the company received a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this month. Southern's Georgia utility has estimated the project will cost more than $6 billion, to be split among the project's owners. Southern, which will own 46% of the new reactors, expects to pay $2.2 billion. Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power, and Dalton Utilities will own the rest of the project. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said earlier this month that he expected Southern to obtain the loan guarantee after the company got its construction and operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. -By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com
